Chuck Schuldiner Project

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Roger O'Donnell - Love and Other Tragedies

I've never really written about something like this before, but when you get asked to write about the keyboardist for The Cure, you fucking do it. That being said, Love and Other Tragedies is a simply entrancing suite of nine tracks divided into three distinct parts, each telling its own story. All performed by the incredibly gifted Julia Kent these arrangements for two to four cellos and one keyboard are intricately set up revealing the true genius of O'Donnell and giving hope for a better future to come from a dark world.

These arrangements tell time honored stories, Tristan and Isolde, Scheherazade, and of course Orpheus and Eurydice are all represented here, yet O'Donnell is able to have a unique take on each of them. With each track representing a different plot point he takes the listener on a journey, guiding them from one strange musical precipice to the next. Unafraid to push boundaries there are moments on Love and Other Tragedies that seem to hint at dissonance, yet the pieces always resolve into an emotionally satisfying and intellectually rich soundworld that even the most elitist classical music snob would have to acknowledge.

It's easy to fall in love with the music Roger O'Donnell has crafted for this particular project, but that might be asides the point. What makes Love and Other Tragedies great is the way that it captures the imagination and guides the listener down a path of sublime beauty. It allows you to reflect on the inherent sadness of the tragic love story, yet also resonates with something very human found within all of us. Passionate, provocative and simply majestic, Love and Other Tragedies is nothing short of a masterpiece.